To celebrate taking my TI out four days out of five (retirement is not all bad LOL) I tackled a big trip (for me) today, as can be seen from a Google Earth extract. I hit 7.5 knots to windward, bit suspect I got a little help from the tide (for scale, the lake is 24kms long. Total trip time was 6 1/2 hours including nattering at the sailing club.The sorthern most point was a dinghy sailing club, and they very kindly made me a coffee.As you might have guessed, my track omitted the numerous tack...

Earth! There is a channel connecting the lake directly to the ocean, and the tidal overflow takes almost THREE HOURS for the huge volume of water to equalise with the tide "outside", despite the channel being about 100 yards wide and 12 deep. The current reaches SIX KNOTS in the channel, and depending on water depth and width between islands, it is often possible to be in a tidal flow faster than two knots despite being a couple of miles from the open sea.

Makes for some rather exciting sailing sometimes, especially due to the huge number of oyster leases which might prevent vessels entering but not the tide.